This trip was a wonderful one! The reason it was all worth it to me was because of the reaction to going! We had told the kids that we wanted to visit Disneyland sometime in 2011. My first choice was to go in January but that is always hard right after Christmas! So we told them probably the fall, knowing that we wanted to plan a surprise in February. We only knew about the surprise for about 3 weeks and boy was that so very hard for me! I could not wait to tell them because of their love for the place. They continually beg me to go there!
February 12th was the day to leave. We woke the kids up a little earlier than normal and told them we were going on a picnic to Zion's and stopping at Walmart on the way out. Carter was so not impressed since he had to wake up early. He couldn't figure out why we were in such a rush to get to Walmart! As they were getting into the van they started noticing the luggage, the swim bag, the tv that is not normally set up. Questions were starting to rise and the plan was to tell them as we passed Walmart. The plan was backfiring. Shoot! Curtis was stressing out so I just decided to tell them right when they were buckled.
Here is the awesome reveal, or should I say the awesome reaction to the reveal. Feel free to fast forward it if needed!
Yay, we're going to Disneyland!
Swimming at the hotel. We stayed at the Desert Inn and Suites which was literally across the street. That was a wonderful feature. I will do that again!
Snuggling into bed with great anticipation for our first day in the park!
Wahoo! It's our first day in Disneyland!
Our first ride of the day was Matterhorn Mountain. It was a definite family favorite. It was also the very last ride that we went on! I can't believe that children of 35" can go on this. It is a very rickety ride..might even bring on a headache, but it's all worth it for the growls of the abominable snow monster and for the screams of delight from the children!
Evey kept talking about the teacups and just had to get them out of her system! They are pretty fun!
Space mountain was next! Evey was beside me. It was so exciting this year that she met the 40" height requirement to go on the Disney coasters. As she was being measured we all held our breath but she passed with room to spare. When she was told that she could ride, she jumped up and down and shouted out, "yay, I'm tall enough! It was so cute! AND it was so great that we could all ride together finally!
This was the rocket ride in Tomorrowland that we didn't get to ride the last time, so we made sure we did for Ella and Evey.
Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. It was a fun little place that we enjoyed our lunch at.
Disney Animation in CA. Auntie Laurette recommended this to us and it was very fun. We got to learn to draw "Grumpy" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I was in charge of Evey so I didn't get much done!
I cannot believe that we got ALL of the kids on the Tower of Terror! Evey and Ella had cold feet just before and didn't want to go on again after experiencing the terror!
The park stayed open late on the first day so I kept the 3 oldest with me until closing. It was so fun!
It's Valentine's Day!
The must do festive dos!
I like this storybook land canal ride. Evey was excited to go into Monstro the Whale's big mouth!
Toy Story Mania is a fun and popular ride. It was our longest wait...a 45 minute line. Still worth it though!
We just love Soarin' Over California! I can just hear the music, feel the breeze, and smell the oranges!
California Screamin' is Emery, Carter, Caden, and Curtis' favorite ride of all! They rode it at least 10 times!
While they were doing that, I took the girls to Fantasyland to ride Dumbo!
Then we headed over to Toon Town.
We've got some good lookin' luggage!
This is the only thing that pleased Evey on the last night. She was exhausted after 3 full days of fun!
Ella enjoyed her pink lollipop back at the hotel. It lasted her 2 months after!
Ariel's Grotto
What a great place to take your daughters! I would recommend this to anyone with girls.
Ariel greeted us upon our arrival at the bottom of a spiral staircase!
She was an admirer of the holiday hair and suggested a picture from the back!
This was our lovely appetizer tray! The girls ordered seashell pasta for lunch. I think they were too busy looking around, coloring, and meeting princesses to take the time to eat!
All of the princesses came in one at a time and they were announced by a royal guard. It was truly exciting to the girls. Evey jumped up and down on her seat when she saw Snow White!
This was our scrumptious dessert. The white chocolate seashell was our favorite!
I just loved how the princesses came to us and we didn't have to wait in line to meet them!
Our favorite characters! Character chasing is one of my most favorite things about Disneyland! We always have an autograph book waiting to be signed!
Chip'n'Dale are such goofballs! They were one of my favorites!
They were so impressed with the girls' heart hair that Dale traced a heart on his head!
Getting to visit Rapunzel's tower was the girls' favorite character moment! We got to meet Rapunzel and Flynn for the first time! Evey loves Flynn and couldn't wait to meet him. When she did, I think she became a little star struck! She was very shy and wouldn't look at him. After she said, "mom, Flynn was silly." I think she meant that it didn't really look like him. I totally agree but he was still a very nice Flynn!
We had never met Princess Tiana before so that was great!
We were lucky to be the first in line to meet Minnie! I was keeping my eye out for her!
I had never been to Pixie Hollow and the girls have never taken an interest in fairies. They were busy riding Mickey's Fun Wheel in CA so I dragged the boys with me to Disneyland to meet these cute fairies. I made Carter and Caden take pictures and video. They weren't too happy with me at first but ended up being pleased with themselves for being the tech guys!
Ofcourse it all went by way too fast and ofcourse all the kids were devasted when it came to a close. For a while Emery couldn't even mention the word Disneyland. She said it was just too sad. I am trying to teach her to be happy with the memories!
We can't wait for our next Disneyland trip. Hopefully we can sneek in a few more before the kids are grown!
7 comments:
LOVE this post! I am there with you all the way! Love all the great character photos. You collected signatures from them all, right? So you got the monsters Inc guy, Gepetto and Silvermist. Kyleigh will especially be jealous about Silvermist as that is her all time favourite fairy! The best part though was the reveal. I love how your kids were not really listening (hmmm that never happens in my house. Never. LOL). and then all of a sudden they got really serious. Emery's scream was hilarious! So glad you had so much fun! Don't you wish you could just live there? Ahhhhh that would be the life!
come stay with us!! seriously! and i LOVED the reaction! carters was actually my favorite. "REALLY??" you have such ridiculously cute kids, i'm obsessed!! we're excited to see you this weekend!!! p.s. curtis' drawing of grumpy (or whoever it was...) was REALLY good!!!
Mel, that video is a treasure. It had me in tears. I'm so glad your wish came true, and what sweet faith from little Ella to pray for you. I'm SO happy you were able to enjoy this wonderful time with your darling, grateful children! Love you all.
Ok, I'm officially jealous. your post will probably cost us a couple thousand dollars now. Looking thru your pictures has now made me want to load up and head out! How fun! I love DL and it looks like you guys didn't miss a thing. I'm so glad you guys had such a wonderful trip. I think my reaction would have been the same if I loaded up in a car and was told I was going to Disneyland. I probably would cry........
Thank you for posting all of those pictures! It was so much fun to live vicariously through them :) My computer stinks and will not play the video, grr... you will have to show me when we are together again. What a fabulous suprise for your kids! I loved the girls' valentine hair, and chip making a heart on his head was halarious. Ariel's grotto looks fascinating, looks like your girls loved it! What a fun family vacation, so happy you got to go and make such lasting family memories.
How fun Mel! I too LOVE Disneyland! I love that you were able to surprise them, how fun and what a great memory that will be! Love all the great character pictures! Madi loved seeing "Tangled" and says next time we go to Disneyland that's the first thing she wants to see. I think your girls would make the perfect Rapunzels some day for sure!
*sigh* what a fun post. It SO makes me want to take my kids there. Love all the descriptions and pictures. I love that you still did valentine's hair at disneyland - and that ariel modelled the hair with the girls. :) I LOVE the picture of you in the teacup - you look amazing. And I love that you took a picture of just you with the fairies. That's awesome that Evey is tall enough to go on the rides and I could totally picture her jumping up and down when she was allowed to go on. Cute! What great family memories!
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